


Once upon a time...

by tinypeckers



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-28
Updated: 2015-05-28
Packaged: 2018-04-01 17:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4028365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypeckers/pseuds/tinypeckers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were several grown adults who wanted to be read a bedtime story by an old, angry tomato.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once upon a time...

Simmons didn’t like to admit that he had trouble sleeping. Grif knew only because he shared a room with the other man. When Sarge had experimented on him and installed robot parts to his body Simmons had thought that that would solve everything. It did not for he still had (most) of his old brain and therefore all of his nightmares. They’d plagued him since he was young and were always the same. Images of a familiar yet strange character whose face Simmons could not remember. He was always so tall, so dominating and he said nasty things that made Simmons want to run for the hills. Simmons hadn’t seen the man in years and yet he knew he was, he always knew. Simmons’ father was the cause of most of his fears and even in adulthood, even miles away on a new country he still haunted Simmons. The soldier was sick of the nightmares and of so little sleep that he got.

 

 

It seemed that even his Captain felt the same way. Though Sarge did not share a room with Simmons he did have to share breakfast, lunch and dinner with Simmons’ roommate. Grif was very adamant on complaining about how Simmons kept him up and how the man climbed into his bed for the fifth time that week. He never seemed so annoyed at the last part though.

“All right,” Sarge shut Grif up one morning, “if it annoys you so much how’s about I come in and read him a bedtime story? That’ll get him to sleep.” Sarge concluded.

“Really?” Simmons sounded hopeful. He felt honoured to have Sarge read him a bedtime story.

“Yeah but then I have to listen to it too.” Grif huffed. Sarge rolled his eyes.

“Suck it up Soldier, you can do some of the voices. I’m sure there’s a girl or two in fairy tales.” Sarge thought. Grif sighed heavily. He wasn’t so sure that he liked this solution.

 

 

Yet Grif did not have a choice but to accept it. That evening, shortly after Simmons had climbed into Grif’s bed claiming to fear for the nightmares, Sarge entered carrying an old fairy tale book. Where the man had got they did not know.

“Really? Simmons is a grown man.” Grif scoffed.

“Simmons is in your arms right now.” Sarge countered. Grif chewed upon his lip because, well, yeah.

“All right smart ass, read us a story.” Grif demanded. He did not want this to go on for longer than it was needed. Before Sarge could open the book though, Donut and Lopez came walking in.

“Hey! We heard that there was going to be a story?”  Donut spoke for them. Lopez did not bother. He knew that the Reds would simply ignore what he had really said just to twist it into their own words. Grif rolled his eyes from the bed. He did not like the way that Donut was eyeing it right now.

“No, there’s no story go back to your own bunk.” Grif told them bitterly.

“Isn’t Sarge holding a fairy tale book?” Donut pointed out. He was smirking. Damn it, Grif thought. Sarge must have told them at some point. Maybe he told them on purpose because he knew that it would annoy Grif. Well, it had worked. Grif was now extra irritated.

 

 

“Come on boys, hurry up – we haven’t got all night.” Sarge barked. Donut and Lopez did not need to be told twice, especially by their captain. Simmons yelped in pain as Donut ran and jumped on both he and Grif. Though thin, Donut still seemed to weight a ton when he landed upon Simmons’ thigh. Simmons tried to hold back the tears and the stream of curses that threatened to come out. Grif was not so eloquent.

“Donut, you fat fuck! Get off of me.” Grif demanded. Sarge chuckled from nearby.

“Grif, you’re the big one here.” Sarge chuckled to himself. Grif couldn’t be asked to argue with him. He couldn’t, not with Lopez weirdly curling himself up by Grif’s feet like a cat. Had Sarge messed up yet another aspect of the poor robot’s programming?

“Can we just hurry up with this story? I really want to go to bed.” Simmons whined. Suddenly everyone remembered why they were here in the first place.

 

 

“All right, you big whiny man baby. I’m getting to that part.” Sarge barked. He took a seat upon the floor, uncaring for the stool that sat quite literally a few feet away. Simmons turned in Grif’s arms so that he could see Sarge properly. Then to bask in Grif’s warmth, Simmons pressed back against the man’s chest. It was Grif who hummed in contentment though. What could he say? Simmons was a nice cuddle. Donut was sprawled across them both. Nobody commented on the fact that it was Simmons’ hair that he was twirling between his fingers and not his own. Simmons was not about to complain. It felt absolutely heavenly and was actually making Simmons rather sleepy. It seemed that tonight he was actually going to have a good night’s sleep – at least he hoped.

“Are you ready?” Sarge asked his team. There was a brief silence. Lopez considered whether to just shut down and not bother with this whole ‘story’ nonsense. He didn’t get any enjoyment from it anyway. Grif thought about the sandwich he’d had earlier, Simmons silently begged Sarge to start talking and Donut briefly wondered if he’d peed before he settled down. It didn’t matter, Donut was sure that his pants were pee-proof anyway. That was what Grif had told him.

 

 

Sarge flicked the pages of the book until he was past all the prologues and words of thanks to the first page. He opened his mouth to begin and never got to as someone opened the door.

“Don’t mind us.” Caboose said as he shuffled into the room, Tucker close behind him. The turquoise soldier had his small, weirdly-adorable alien son resting upon his hip.

“Get out, you filthy blues!” Sarge yelled out in instinct. Even though they had been working almost together for quite a while now, he couldn’t help himself. He still had a deep hatred for the guys he shared the damn box canyon with. Caboose pouted.

“Please, angry tomato, can we stay? I want to hear a story.” Caboose begged.

“Yeah and Junior is really antsy today, can we stay please?” Tucker asked. Sarge rolled his eyes.

“Sit down before I change my mind. Don’t let your spawn touch the floor.” Sarge narrowed his eyes at the ‘baby’ Tucker was carrying. Though he wanted to, Tucker did not retaliate.

 

 

Caboose had no qualms about who was on what team and so forth. He followed Donut’s lead and lay across the small group like a big blue blanket. Tucker was not so enthralled with that idea. Instead he sat upon the floor and tucked his child against his chest.

“Well, go on.” Tucker insisted. Even though he wanted to listen to the story, Tucker kind of wanted to get out of the red base as soon as possible. It kind of made him uncomfortable.

“Are we all ready now?” Sarge asked. He kind of regretted agreeing to do this now. Everyone nodded. “Okay then, once upon a time…” Sarge began. Surprisingly, everyone listened and did not giggle or interrupt. Sarge had barely turned the page before Simmons was snoring. Sarge smiled proudly. “There, now I can leave.” Sarge said.

“No!” Those who were awake cried out.

“What? Are you serious?” Sarge almost laughed. These grown men were asking him to read a story?

“Please angry tomato.” Caboose pouted. Even Sarge was not immune to the blue team member’s cuteness. He huffed but sat down all the same. Later it would be a good story to blackmail them with, Sarge hoped.  


End file.
